News

Community Safety Department Director To Resign Amid Tension With Cambridge Police Department

News

From Lab to Startup: Harvard’s Office of Technology Development Paves the Way for Research Commercialization

News

People’s Forum on Graduation Readiness Held After Vote to Eliminate MCAS

News

FAS Closes Barker Center Cafe, Citing Financial Strain

News

8 Takeaways From Harvard’s Task Force Reports

Professor Trowbridge's Experiments.

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

The results of Professor Trowbridge's experiments with the electrical spark, which he has been able to produce with the aid of his powerful storage battery, have created a wide-spread interest in the world of science and he has received most flattering letters from many of the leading physicists of the country.

Professor Trowbridge has discovered that a flash of lightning travelling through two miles of air meets with no more resistance than a flash going through two feet of air. This discovery practically reverses Ohm's Law, that the resistance which a current overcomes is proportionate to the distance traversed, in its bearing upon air as a conductor. The law still holds with regard to other conductors such as copper wire.

Professor Trowbridge has also demonstrated why lightning goes down heated chimneys or through warm rooms, a fact which has long puzzled scientists for hot air affords greater resistance to electricity than cold air. He has shown that a current breaks down the first resistance of hot air more readily than that of cold and is therefore diverted into the warmer spaces.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags